VR-09 Hints and Tips

[AnotherScott]

Nice to see!

 

The first three in particular are things that I remember being discussed here (the first presumably being the fix for the retrigger issue, and fixed in a good way that keeps as much of Roland's traditional "patch remain" functionality as is feasible with a single effect architecture). Unfortunately they didn't address the things I was specifically hoping for, but c'est la vie.

 

Parts to which the Expression Pedal effect will be applied can be selected.

Hopefully this is by registration and not global?

 

The setting that disables the Rotary Effect operation by the Pitch bend/Modulation lever in the Organ Sound was added. This prevents misoperations during live performances.

I don't remember this one being discussed, but it sounds like that addresses a complaint that has been raised about the Numa organ... that when you use its wheel as a Mod wheel, there's no way to stop it from also altering the rotary effect. Again, ideally this is by registration and not global. (I assume the idea is that you could still use the footswitch to alter rotary speed while using the lever as a mod control... though that would be a cleaner solution if you could also determine whether the footswitch were assigned to organ rotary or piano sustain on a patch by patch basis.)

 

The sounds of the keyboard performance part can be changed from MIDI IN using the Program Change and the Bank Select.

I don't think I was aware of this issue. Previously, you could not change your keyboard sounds from an external source? That's a pretty significant improvement, then. With its paucity of registration buttons, I had been thinking you could at least potentially call up your sound via iPad app, foot controlled patch selector, or a second keyboard you may be using... it sounds like that wouldn't have worked before? Glad it's addressed. Had I realized, that would have been on my primary wish list!

 

The Control Change 7 and 11 from MIDI IN in the Organ Sound can be received.

Again, I wasn't aware this wasn't working this way before. Good fix for people using the VR's organ in an externally driven sequence.

[Rewolf48]

I'm sure that you will let us all know how it goes when you do try it. Obviously not just before a Gig!

 

I have noticed that it appears to be a one-way upgrade - and at 3.6M is probably a patch not a replacement; so no way back to version 1.0.

 

That is one area where Line-6 where JTV Guitars (simulates guitars) and Pod HD Effects (and Amp simulations) can always revert to older versions of the firmware if the user doesn't like the updated version.

[Craig MacDonald]

Another scott.. Yes roland refers to the retriggering problem as having no "patch remain" I couldn't recall the exact phrase.. So hopefully that's fixed.

 

I expect the expression change is global (and personally I can live with that as I always have organ on the upper part). But if it can be saved by registration that would be fantastic.

 

The joystick rotary issue is a problem I noticed, if you hit the joystick up (rather than side to side for the rotary speed control) it turns the Leslie sim off (if I recall correctly) and this was annoying, but I didn't see it as a bug, but its good to have an option for this.

 

I wasn't aware of the last two issues either, but the program control change update is good because, if i understand this correctly, it allows you to use an external controller to select the registration, in a multi keyboard setup.. Which could be easier than doing so manually me specially considering the sensitivity of the wheel and limitations of the bank buttons.

[WesG]

This is great! I can't wait to try this... Sunday. I have a gig Saturday and will be bringing the VR09 as a backup.

 

The patch change issue is particularly maddening. I often transition patches smoothly with sustain, and know how to manage the effects unit glitching. But to have the same note retrigger with the new patch is disastrous. I'm sure this I the same bug you guys are complaining about. Somebody at Roland must be red faced over that one.

 

I hope that pedal/control selections are now per registration. That is the next issue on my hit list. After that, it will all be gravy.

 

The Atelier stuff is puzzling but interesting. Is it Roland or Kawai that has the second drawbar in its "proper" place, between the 8 and 4'?

 

I'm also waiting for individual patch storage/exchange. That will really make this thing a monster value!!

 

Wes

[AnotherScott]

The patch change issue is particularly maddening. I often transition patches smoothly with sustain, and know how to manage the effects unit glitching. But to have the same note retrigger with the new patch is disastrous. I'm sure this I the same bug you guys are complaining about. Somebody at Roland must be red faced over that one.

Yeah, that was the one thing that Roland did acknowledge was going to be fixed, that's a biggie.

 

If I could pick three more potential software fixes: (1) ability to pan your two split/layer sounds left and right (even if you only get the hard left/right split when you disable effects), (2) a setting to allow the drawbars to send CCs (enabled/disabled per registration), (3) ability to assign the footswitch to either sustain or rotary effect per registration. (4) ability to include separate Program Change commands for each side of a split in a registration, so you could more easily split internal and external sounds in any combination you want. Okay, I couldn't stop at three!

 

Related to #3, I'm curious about how something works today... If you have the pedal set up as a sustain pedal, can the sustain pedal be enabled on one part of a split and not the other? i.e. you might want sustain on your left hand piano while not on your right hand lead sound, or you might want sustain on you RH piano while not on your LH bass sound, can you do these things on the VR as it is now? If you can't store the sustain on/off function in a registration, maybe you can save it in an individual program, and then you can accomplish this by recalling combinations of sounds that do or do not have the sustain pedal function enabled? If there's not *some* way to do this, then I guess I'd have to expand my list to five. ;-)

[To B3]

That sounds great, at least as a first step!... downloaded the manual with the updates and it reads on the "settings that are stored in the registration" something like this: "Expression Part- > Part(s) affected by the expression pedal p. 46". Looks like it's per registration, isnt it?

 

Not familiar with this, tho: "JUPITER-50/80 and ATELIER Series Solo Mode were added. When Dual is selected, the highest key in the keyboards of the part 2 will be sounded."

 

And could not figure it out by reading the manual. Can someone explain how does that work? If a piano is on the part 2, only one note will sound? Confused...

 

Any chance of new effects added on next updates? pedal wah or amp sim would be great...

 

also did not understand what they meant by "efects after switching will be apllied"...

[Craig MacDonald]

AnotherScott, that damper pedal functionality already exists today.. you can specify what the damper pedal does (program switch, rotary speed switch, damper/sustain etc) and you can select whether this controls upper/lower/both parts.. you can also store the damper "part" as part of the registration, although I don't believe that you can store the actual function of the switch in the registration (that is global) so the switch function is a global parameter and which parts it affects is stored by registration. Hope that explains things and answers your question.

[AnotherScott]

also did not understand what they meant by "efects after switching will be apllied"...

Something Roland will probably never fix... having documentation written by native English speakers. Even though cost-benefit ratio there would be pretty darn good!

 

Anyway, this presumably means that, when you switch from, for example, piano to a chorus Rhodes, if the piano notes are still being held down (or sustain-pedaled), the piano notes will not cut out when you make the change (that's the "patch remain" feature)... but after switching, the new effect will be applied to what remains of the old sound. That is, those piano notes that have persisted through the patch change will now have chorus on them (replacing any effect you may have had enabled on the piano patch itself).

[AnotherScott]

the switch function is a global parameter and which parts it affects is stored by registration. Hope that explains things and answers your question.

Perfect explanation, thanks. Now that you mention it, I think I remember that from my early review of the manual, thanks for confirming.

[Craig MacDonald]

That sounds great, at least as a first step!... downloaded the manual with the updates and it reads on the "settings that are stored in the registration" something like this: "Expression Part- > Part(s) affected by the expression pedal p. 46". Looks like it's per registration, isnt it?

 

 

Yes I just downloaded the manual myself and it looks like both the damper pedal AND the expression pedal settings (which parts they are applied to) are saved as part of the registration.. That's fantastic!!! I'm just downloading the update now and I will probably load it into my VR-09 later today..

[Craig MacDonald]

It also suggests that the organ can be octave transposed now which was another issue that some users had. This is very handy for organ (or other) splits...

 

So it looks like a lot of the issues have been addressed.. the one that doesn't seem to be addressed is the problem with the leslie effect and layers... When you have an upper organ part that uses the leslie sim, the lower part goes through the leslie sim too. I will have to check this when I get the new OS loaded, but it doesn't look like this has been resolved, and I suspect that it may never be fixed because I don't believe it's an easy fix, based on the way the effects work in layered mode.

[To B3]

Hoping to hear more from that later...

 

What about ""JUPITER-50/80 and ATELIER Series Solo Mode were added. When Dual is selected, the highest key in the keyboards of the part 2 will be sounded."?

 

If we can apply independent effects on the lower part of a split on a next update, we have a winner...

[Craig MacDonald]

I think the issues with effects and layers, as well as the ability to load/save individual registrations are the two main areas that are left to be addressed and then this little board will be complete!!

[High Diving Act]

Great news.. and I agree Craig.

 

Haters are gonna start to have to make up stuff to complain about soon. I can't see them not addressing the individual registration issue.. as this virtually cripples this keyboard to ever be listed on the axial site. Wonder if OV could comment on that.. or at least look into if another update release is being considered.

 

Looking forward to downloading tonight.

[Craig MacDonald]

HDA,

 

The haters will still complain about the keyboard or the short loops on the acoustic piano sounds or whatever, but anyone who is reasonable regarding what we could/would/should expect in a keyboard at this price point, will be impressed..

 

I plan to ask OV that question on the Roland Blog shortly..

[Adan]

This update is great news. With the "dealbreakers" fixed, I can now consider buying this keyboard, and in fact I probably will the minute I return to band gigging (maybe in a couple months). Already have the RD64.

[Ken Beaumont]

I'm thinking there will be another update addressing the registration issue fairly soon. Especially if the Axial site is generating the interest they hoped. I don't own any of the synths it currently supports so I don't know if the Axial has many users.

But it seems like this is a much smaller hurdle than effects routing and layers.

[High Diving Act]

I thought the individual registration save update would have been the first to roll out. Maybe they got sick of Craig hounding them and just decided to roll out what they had done so far. lol

 

We will call this update "The Craig McDonald"

[Craig MacDonald]

Toano,, I agree, it seems like it would be easy to enable the VR-09 to load/save individual registrations/programs from the axial site.. I have an idea that perhaps they won't enable this functionality in the VR-09 specifically, perhaps they will enable the iPad editor to load the individual sounds and from there into the VR-09.. This functionality may require both an editor update and a VR-09 update (which may already be enabled in the VR-09). Just a thought.

[voxpops]

Great news!

 

I think this board is now becoming extremely competitive with those costing much more.

 

Thanks to Roland, and apologies for doubting their commitment. We are really starting to witness listening and responding from major manufacturers (PX-5S, CP-4 (hopefully), VPC-1, VR-09). A two-way dialog was definitely what was needed.

[Ken Beaumont]

Craig, that makes sense. If that's the case, Apple should be very grateful. At the current rate of iPad only apps, Apple should own the music industry shortly. Not sure that's a good thing.

 

I do find my iPad extremely useful though! And not just for music.

[Craig MacDonald]

Yup!

 

Can't wait until HammondDave wakes up on the west coast and sees this!

 

ITYS!

 

 

[The_Star_Guy]

This update is great news. With the "dealbreakers" fixed, I can now consider buying this keyboard, and in fact I probably will the minute I return to band gigging (maybe in a couple months). Already have the RD64.

 

Indeed. This was pretty much what I was waiting for also. Now that the first OS/firmware update has been released, I'm pretty confident nearly all major outstanding issues will be addressed, mainly the ability to load & save individual patch registrations. Especially important as I plan to make extensive use of the VA synth section. Does anyone know if the Ipad app will also be updated as well, or I guess that would most likely occur after Apple officially releases IOS 7??

[AnotherScott]

This update is great news. With the "dealbreakers" fixed, I can now consider buying this keyboard, and in fact I probably will the minute I return to band gigging (maybe in a couple months). Already have the RD64.

I definitely see a lot of appeal in the VR-09, but I think it would be tough for me to switch if I already owned an SK1, as you do!

[To B3]

Would it be too hard to make it possible to address the knobs (tone, overdrive, delay, compression, etc) to each side of a split or layer, independently, if we leave out the MFX, for example, to "eat" less resources of the engine? Or leaving the MFX out would not make any difference on the effect chain?

 

Anyway, great news already... If only the function of the pedals could be saved patch by patch, would be another great step... How do you guys that use the VR mainly as an organ but still use splits/layers and pianos change the leslie speed? By pedal, and lose the sustain ability, by d-beam (that could be nice, i dont know) or by the button/lever?

[Adan]

This update is great news. With the "dealbreakers" fixed, I can now consider buying this keyboard, and in fact I probably will the minute I return to band gigging (maybe in a couple months). Already have the RD64.

I definitely see a lot of appeal in the VR-09, but I think it would be tough for me to switch if I already owned an SK1, as you do!

 

Can't do an 80's gig, for instance, with the SK1.

[To B3]

Still did not understand what practical uses would have that item that says: "JUPITER-50/80 and ATELIER Series Solo Mode were added. When Dual is selected, the highest key in the keyboards of the part 2 will be sounded. ( Refer to "Changing How Part 2 Will Be Sounded (Solo Mode)")...

[rien]

Quick test of the new update (so happy that i could not wait longer !):

- the note retrigger issue has indeed disappeared ! And you hear the new effects settings aplying to the remains of the old sound.

- the percussion still goes through C/V...

 

I had no time to test further.

 

[brenner13]

Still did not understand what practical uses would have that item that says: "JUPITER-50/80 and ATELIER Series Solo Mode were added. When Dual is selected, the highest key in the keyboards of the part 2 will be sounded. ( Refer to "Changing How Part 2 Will Be Sounded (Solo Mode)")...

I have no clue what this means. Got gigs this weekend so will probably work the update on Sunday.

 

The expression pedal is too jumpy for me right now, so I've globaly set that to change rotary speed. I like using the D-beam for that as well...it's a great show feature to exaggerate the hand motion through the air on stage. Sounds like we might be able to keep the pitch bend as as a pitch bender, now when organ is involved?

 

There will not be much sleeping the next several days.

[rien]

i took some minutes to test the expression and damper pedal settings. some weird tricks here...

 

i was using a piano sound, layered with a brass sound. when setting the damper to 'to UPPER', it sustained the 2 sounds. when setting the expression pedal to 'to LOWER' it affected only the brass sound. i am not sure i understand what this means... another new bug ?

 

also i tried saving 2 registrations with different functions for the damper pedal, and unfortunately, it was not saved with the registration.

 

(also, i could not remind how to save the current sound to a specific registration in another bank. i loaded a registration from bank 1, made some edits, and wanted to save the result into bank 9... can somebody tell me ?)